I don’t fly out until about lunchtime, so I’ve time to throw some prose together.
I am still a little nervous, and went to the library yesterday to get a book to read, something to take my mind off hurtling through the air in a lump of metal driven by a fifteen year old .
I asked the guy behind the counter if he had that new book on erectile disfunction, and after tapping away at his keyboard, he said ” Its not coming up ”
” Thats the one ! ”
This weekend sees Celtic finally collect the league trophy, well, when i say collect, they’ll bring it out the cupboard, wave it around a bit, and then put it back until next year.
With last weeks game against Aberdeen being preceded by the opening of the Celtic Way, ( and a few other events ) , the club have decided to continue with this theme of pre match entertainment, presumably in case there isn’t actually any during the game.
They’ve released a timetable;
9.00am: Celtic Superstore opens for supporters, with full “Champions” range available.
9.30am: Ticket Office open early for matchday tickets and Season Ticket renewals. Kids go for just £5 this Saturday. More info HERE
10.30am: Kerrydale Bar open, serving hot breakfast rolls ahead of kick-off.
The bar will open again following the final whistle, with live music from Liam McGrandles, and live action from the final day of the English Premier League.
10.45am: Celtic legends Stiliyan Petrov and John Hartson will bring the SPFL trophy from The Celtic Way into Celtic Park, followed by Neil Lennon and his first-team squad. More info HERE
We’ll also have the usual activity in the Family Stand, including a face painter, magician, and a visit from Hoopy.
11.45pm: We’ll have pre-match interviews with Stiliyan Petrov, Hollywood star Ross McCall, and Tony Hamilton of Celtic FC Foundation. We’ll also have live music by youngsters from Hazelwood School band “The Fridays”. More info HERE
12.15pm: The Hoops take on Dundee Utd in the final game of another successful league campaign, and will be looking to end 2013/14 on a high.
2.00pm: Trophy Presentation – Celebrate with the Bhoys as they are presented with the SPFL Premiership Trophy by the presentation committee which includes Stiliyan Petrov and John Hartson.
Remember, kids under 13 go for just £5 this Sunday, with concessions available from £17 and adults from £26. Tickets are available ONLINE* on 0871 226 1888** at the Ticket Office at Celtic Park, or the following club stores: Argyle St, Sauchiehall St, Clydebank, Coatbridge, East Kilbride.
The presence of Petrov and Hartson, who have both suffered serious illness, should ensure an emotional occasion, and as soon as I find out who Ross McCall is I’ll be able to praise the club for hooking a big name.
According to the interweb, he played a boy scout in comedy show The Brittas Empire, had three separate parts in the Bill, and was a corporal in US army series “Band of Brothers “, which suggests an unhealthy desire for uniforms.
He’s from Port Glasgow, which is just unhealthy. One of the longest weekends of my life was a Saturday afternoon in Port Glasgow back in February, and in fact the Clyde runs at its fastest where it passes the town.
Well, so would you.
Anyone who didn’t see the opening ceremony last week of the new Celtic Way can watch an interesting short video detailing how it all came about, which is here
Virgil van Dijk was unhappy with his performance-and that of the team-on Wednesday night, and he’s vowed to make up for it on sunday.
‘It was very disappointing for us,’ said the Dutchman. ‘We were 3-1 up yet we still gave it away, so it’s very disappointing. But I don’t think we deserved a win.
‘We were poor in the first half, definitely. It was very bad. I don’t know the reason behind it. But we know we can do better and we need to do better. We have one more game left and we need to show the fans we can make a revenge for the St Johnstone game.
‘Yes, we were definitely angry with ourselves. We know we can play much better and it was such a bad, bad first half. Second half was a little bit better. We shouldn’t have given it away when we were 3-1 up. But we did and it was a shame.
‘We should have done much better, seen out the game, locked the ball up, kept the possession to ourselves. I think we were still in a rush and we didn’t defend well.
‘We definitely want to win against Dundee United and make it a beautiful day. We need to bounce back and show everyone and the fans why we are the champions of Scotland.’
‘It was very bad and we didn’t deserve a win. We still have goals and we wanted to reach the 100 points.
‘That we can’t now is a big disappointment for all of us. But we’ve still got the chance of 100 goals and that’s what we want to do.
‘It was definitely a big motivation. It was something we wanted to do and it’s always nice to have 100 points and 100 goals as well.’
Still, at least he isn’t sulking.
Its that time of year again when transfer speculation will be the easiest and most popular way to fill pages and sell papers, so we might as well start the ball rolling.
Belgian side Oostende are apparently lining up a bid for Tony Watt, who has now completed his loan spell in Belguim. He did quite well over there, and hardly ever got into trouble for anything. According to the Herald, his future is “unclear “, which , coincidentally, is often the answer given when one is asked why one reads the Herald.
Its not only papers who need to fill space, but websites ( Yes, I can see the irony ) and HITC Sport tells us why some players just have to leave Celtic this summer..;
Teemu Pukki
Having failed to make the grade at Schalke in the Bundesliga, Neil Lennon took something of a gamble on Pukki, hoping that Celtic would reap the same kind of return as the Hoops previously did when bringing Henrik Larsson to the club following a difficult few years with Feyenoord.
However the Finn has been unable to match the Swede’s superb return of 19 goals in his debut campaign in Scotland, scoring just six goals all term, albeit with the forward often playing in a wider role for the Bhoys.
Although just 24, Pukki cost Celtic a reported £3 million and having struggled with form and fitness, the time to sell on a player with spells at Sevilla in La Liga and a stint in Germany on his CV may be fast approaching.
Ah, well, if he’s not as good as Henrik Larsson he has to go.
Fraser Forster
Something of an alternative to the aforementioned pair, ( the site added Derk Boerrigter to the list, but its hard to disagree with that one ) Forster’s imminent departure offers pluses for both the player and individual with the English stopper’s stock unlikely to get any higher at Celtic Park.
Despite making the England squad just a couple of years down the line from being a Newcastle reserve.
A league title winner with the Bhoys, Forster played a starring role at Parkhead this term, keeping a record 13 league clean sheets in a row to surpass the previous club record of ten set by Charlie Shaw back in 1922. He also set a new clean sheet run record of 1,256 minutes, a total that surpassed the Scottish League record of 1,155 minutes set by Bobby Clark.
With progress in the Champions League likely to be a tough ask again and with Forster eager to progress his fledgling international career with England, a move looks likely.
And Celtic would be wise to cash-in on the keeper now, with former club Newcastle United likely to be in the market for a replacement to the potentially-outgoing Tim Krul and happy to pay a premium for a stopper of Forster’s quality.
Hold on to the player and both club and individual could suffer, with any potential slump or frustrations likely to promote unwanted disharmony amongst those at Celtic.
Is the writer actually saying “get rid in case he turns out shite ” here ? I do believe he is…
After due consideration, the only ones who I’d be relieved, for their own good and the good of the club , to see leave are Amido Balde, Derk Boerrigter and Beram Kayal.
In their place, Gary Hooper, Robert Snodgrass and a rescue mission for Johnny Russell would be fine.
Someone who left Celtic in January, Joe Ledley , told the Croydon Advertiser that he had made the right decision to join Crystal Palace and Tony Pulis …
“I think he’s got to be manager of the year, with the points and everything since he’s taken over,” said the Wales international.
“He has been remarkable, not just against the bottom-half teams but also the big teams where we picked up results against Chelsea and now Liverpool.
“He’s a brilliant manager. I had a couple of opportunities to work with him before and I think I’ve made the right decision now.
“I am happy to be working under him. I have loved every minute. It was difficult to leave Celtic but to come here and be in a good place and under a good manager, it makes everything a lot easier.
“That’s what he’s done. He has put belief in me and the new signings and everyone else. It has worked out.”
It must be something to do with Crystal Palace. Another history revisionist is former winger John Hughes, who still hasn’t got over not featuring in the Lisbon 1967 European Cup win, despite being injured.
Jock Stein was intimidating, inhumane and corrupt
– the damning verdict of former player John ‘Yogi’
Hughes
Former Celtic and Scotland striker John ‘Yogi’ Hughes’ reveals all about the legendary manager’s dark side side in his newly released autobiography
One particular example he provided of the single-mindedness Stein brought to the job was, frankly, chilling.
“We were on a post-season tour to America in 1966 and my first wife, Mary, was pregnant at the time,” he said. “I used to phone home every five or six days.
“Then I bumped into the sports reporter Ken Gallacher one morning and he said: ‘Sorry to hear your news.’ I didn’t know what he was talking about until he told me that Mary had had a miscarriage four days earlier.
“Jock knew but he hadn’t told me, so make your own mind up about that. When I asked him about it, he said: ‘Ach, what could you do about it, anyway? You’re here and she’s there.’ ”
Like many other managers of the time, Stein treated Celtic’s money as though it was his own, as Hughes discovered to his cost in the summer of 1968.
He had recovered from the ankle injury which forced him to miss the European Cup final 12 months earlier and had been part of the League Cup and Championship-winning teams as well as returning to the Scotland side.
“I’d worked really hard, training all through the summer and I had a good season so I went to ask Jock for a wage rise,” he said.
“He said, ‘Look, I’ve been thinking about this. I know how you feel: you’ve had a terrific season. But I think, just to keep your feet on the ground, that we should cut your wages.’ That was his opening gambit. Where do you go from there? I’d just scored for Scotland against England at Hampden and there I was, wondering how I could get back to what I’d been earning before I walked into his office.
“He was a fox. I say things about him in the book but I don’t make any judgments on him. What I’ve done is lay the facts out and people can make up their own minds.”
Almost 43 years after the event, the pain of Hughes’ departure from Parkhead has not eased. He admits that he will never get over it.
“I’m a Celtic guy and I didn’t want to leave,” he said. “A reporter asked me why I signed for Crystal Palace when Everton and Sheffield Wednesday were in for me but I didn’t know that because Jock didn’t tell me.
“While I was in negotiating with the Crystal Palace chairman, he came in and took me outside. He said: ‘You get in there and f——- sign or I’ll sit you in the stand for nine months.’ So that was that.
“It would never happen nowadays, as you’ve got agents and some sort of say. With Jock you didn’t have a say. You know what they say about power corrupting and absolute power …
“Don’t get me wrong: I had some great times under him. When he came I played most of the time. It was only latterly that things went wrong.
“He did it with Willie Wallace [who also signed for Palace at that time] as well. Willie didn’t know he was going either. Apparently, Jock didn’t want his team to become an ageing one like Inter Milan, who were past their best. We were 28, though, and in our prime. They say you reach your best between 28 and 32 – I never reached my peak, thanks to Mr Stein.
“What he’s done for Celtic, no one can ever change that: it’s in the history books. It was a phenomenal achievement. But he wasn’t my favourite person eventually.”
Stein died on the touchline at Ninian Park, Cardiff on Sept 10, 1985 just as Scotland pipped Wales to a play-off against Australia for the World Cup finals. Tellingly, Hughes did not join his team-mates at the crematorium.
“I didn’t go to his funeral,” he said. “I would have been a hypocrite if I had gone. He got rid of me when I was in my prime and three years later I was finished [due to injury].
“People ask me: ‘Are you bitter?’ Yes, I was bitter. I was finished at 28. I think I’m Celtic’s seventh-highest goalscorer but had I stayed until I was 32 and kept scoring at the same rate I would have been third top.”
Hughes is also convinced that the 1970 European Cup final defeat by Feyenoord can be attributed to complacency.
“Jock thought we’d won the trophy after we’d beaten Leeds United in the semi-final,” he said. “We didn’t think that but he did, and the atmosphere permeates down from the top. He thought: ‘Ach, it’ll be a dawdle – we only need to turn up.’ Why else would we have had that approach?
“There were all sorts of rumours about us having arguments about bonuses but I don’t remember any of that. The other thing you need to take into account – which I think is crucial – is that he changed the team which had beaten Leeds.
“Jock left out George Connelly and played Willie Wallace so we were left with just two players in the middle of the park – and that’s where we were destroyed. ”
Well, I’ll bet he’s glad he got that off his chest. He might well have a point, and Stein, of course isn’t perfect.
But he got results. And some former players say he released players to give them a chance to earn some money down south….Celtic , of course , were notoriously poor payers in those days.
However, it sounds like an interesting enough read, a bit similar to the Tommy Gemmell one from a few years ago. Which wasn’t full of praise for the boss either.
I’ll be reading the book, but i don’t think I’d like to be sitting next to Hughes on a plane , for instance.
Those two are in the past, but Liam Henderson, preparing for todays title showdown with Dundee Utd alongside his under 20 team mates is very much one for the future.
“It would be really good to win two championship medals. I managed to time my run quite good into the first team. It’s been a busy last couple of months but it’s been good and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it and hopefully it can keep happening for me.
“I don’t really set myself any targets but going away on pre-season [with the first team] I thought I could catch the eye because that was a great opportunity the manager gave me.
“He’s bedded me in with the training and then he’s put me in and I’ve very grateful for the opportunity he’s given me. Next season I’m going to try to push even harder. The easy bit was breaking in and making my first start, the hard part is to stay there like Jamesie [James Forest] has done. Hopefully I will follow in his footsteps.”
Not really footsteps as such, but I think I know what he means
Wherever you see the game on Sunday, enjoy it, and the diary will be back on Monday. Or Sunday.
In fact, don’t be surprised if I’m still sitting in the airport this time tomorrow…
Ach, i’ll be fine as long as we get a good driver.
“What I’ve done is lay the facts out and people can make up their own minds.”
-That’s all very well Yogi, but we ain’t exactly getting 2 sides of the story in order to make up our minds are we?
Looking forward to tomorrow for a bit of a party to celebrate the league win. Plus the bonus of ‘Hollywood star Ross McCall’. I think he was the lucky guy who dated Jennifer Love Hewitt for a while and converted her to Timdom.
Onwards and upwards for next season (hopefully) without the heart stopping drama of a Karagandy.
Oscar Knox RIP. Utterly heartbreaking news about the boy who was an amazing inspiration to us all. My deepest thoughts and condolences to all his family. YNWA
Ralph,enjoy your flight.
You will be close to Paradise,but not like us who will be at
Paradise for the trophy presentation.
Ah..Pukki,one swallow doesn’t make a summer,re game
against saints.Time to get rid.Bought as a striker,doesn’t score goals like a striker.Sparky Griffiths at a third of the price,
shows him what Celtic strikers are meant to do.I would bring back Tony Watt.Knows the way to goal.
Great Managers by their very nature are ruthless, they have to be. Stein, Shankly, Ferguson even Jose will have more than a few that don’t have a good word to say about them.
But its Trophy’s that define a Legacy. end of
Yogi was always bitter, the truth was there were plenty players at parkhead who were better than him. The question that should be asked is how well he done when he went to palace , the simple answer is not very well. Every interview he has done had the same old sob story why me, alway feels hard done by. He was so inconsistent as a player, people who saw him play know he could beat three players and then trip over the ball, I think jock stein did him a favour keeping him as long as he did.
Rant over.
My thought and prayers are with brave Oscar and his family, may he rest in peace.
Ralph have a safe journey and a good break.
HailHail
Hello Hello 5 in a Row!
What was the score
Well done the Wee Celts.
Ralph
Thoroughly enjoyable diary and worth a barrowload of comments, especially as I am very much of the Stein generation. However, I am genuinely so down about Wee Oscar. I am only going to add my congratulations to the U20s and leave it at that.
H H
The under 20,s have beaten dun utd to retain the league trophy
5 IN A ROW WELL DONE LADS
SORRY SCORE WAS 2-0
Great diary big man and enjoy your flight. A good book will help….I asked my wife for inspiration about a good read for someone scared of flying – ‘That one where they crash in the Andes and they have to eat the dead to survive’ she said. Uplifting stuff…good luck and may your God go with you.